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Charles Leclerc has suggested he will change his travel plans ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix and take in a trip to Lourdes in a bid to end his run of bad luck this season.
The Ferrari driver, who was due to start the São Paulo GP from second on the grid, again suffered miserable misfortune as he crashed out and into a barrier at Turn 8 on the formation lap at Interlagos.
Explaining what unfolded, Leclerc said: “I went into the corner, lost the power steering first, and then the engine cut off for safety reasons.
“Then the rear wheels locked up and that made me spin so I had no control over the car at any point.
“I started again, I got the hydraulics for 15 seconds, but then exactly the same thing happened – I lost the hydraulics, and then the engine cut out.”
Leclerc remarked that despite hitting the barrier, his SF23 only sustained front-wing damage, and he could have made his way back to the pits but for a repeat of what he initially said over the team radio was a hydraulics failure.
Suggesting there was a bigger issue for the team to investigate, he added: “Hydraulics, that is what I felt but in the end, I don’t think that is the issue speaking with the engineers. We know what it is but I cannot go into detail.”
Over the radio as he sat in his stricken car before he managed to get it moving again, a bitterly frustrated Leclerc said: “Why the f*** am I always so unlucky?”
In the opening race in Bahrain, Leclerc retired with an engine issue, before sustaining a 10-place grid penalty at the following event in Saudi Arabia, where he had qualified second, for exceeding his quota of control electronics elements.
At the next event in Australia, Leclerc spun into the gravel and out of the race after making contact with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
In Spain, Leclerc was hit with a 15-place grid penalty after the power unit was replaced in his SF23, before a floor issue in the Dutch GP forced him into retirement. He was also disqualified in the United States GP for excessive skid-block wear.
Explaining his radio remark, Leclerc said: “It’s part of the moment, obviously I was very frustrated.
“I’m annoyed because, especially over the second half of the year, I have finally found confidence with the car. You sacrifice a whole weekend for Sunday’s race, you do six corners and that’s it.
“Now I need to move on and focus on the last two races, that’s the best thing I can do as a driver, but, of course, frustrating to lose so many opportunities throughout the season.
“You look back at the season, through Bahrain, then Jeddah because of my penalty, and here, there are so many points lost.
“I just hope that after this race we can still be in the fight for the second in the constructors’. That is my only motivation for the rest of the year because then whatever is left is not something that is super exciting.”
As to how he would pick himself up, and looking ahead to his preparation for the Las Vegas GP, he remarked: “I’m pretty good at moving on. In the morning I’ll be fine.
“I’m going to go to Los Angeles, but maybe I’ll move my flight to go to Lourdes beforehand to get a bit of luck, otherwise it will be just Los Angeles for a week.”
